EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) – Authorities in the Mexican border state of Chihuahua have emptied a shelter for teens with drug addiction issues after six girls alleged that they were mistreated and forced to beg for money on the streets.
More than 30 female minors were taken out of the Unidas X Amor center in Chihuahua City and placed in government shelters, Chihuahua state prosecutor Wendy Chavez said at an online news conference on Thursday.
Chavez said several cell phones and laptops were seized at the center so investigators could review messages and video recordings.
Prosecutors are waiting for government psychologists to complete their interviews with all the girls before deciding if they will file human trafficking charges.
Dismembered bodies left with note warning ‘not to kidnap migrants’
EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) – The dismembered bodies of three men were found Thursday in Chihuahua, along with a note saying they should have stayed away from migrant smuggling activities, Mexican authorities said.
The message left next to two of the victims said, “This happens when you rob and kidnap undocumented people,” Chihuahua Attorney General Cesar Jauregui said on Thursday.
Those two bodies were found in Juarez. A third victim, whom Jauregui identified as a member of the Salgueiros cell of the Sinaloa cartel, was found in the southern part of the state.
Jauregui told reporters late last year that transnational criminal organizations traditionally associated with drug trafficking were not making between $70 million and $100 million a month in migrant smuggling fees, extortion, and kidnapping of foreign nationals passing through the state on their way to the United States.
Those gangs often fight each other for control of such activities, leaving behind a wake of bodies.
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